Commentary: Top O‘ The Holy Week To Ya

In the latest ridiculously religious wreck of decisions involving the Catholic Church, St. Patrick’s Day celebrations will suffer somewhat.

The you-better-wear-green-or-you-will-get-pinched holiday falls during Holy Week for the first time since 1940, a rare event that will not happen again until 2160. The holy overlap means Catholics are not allowed to celebrate the saint with the usual Mass this March 17.

St. Patrick’s Day celebrations in Savannah, Philadelphia and Milwaukee have been rescheduled by cities at the request of the Church, the Associated Press reports. Since when is it OK for some wacko who can’t even get his collar on right to dictate civic events? Talk about divine intervention. Somebody must have his giant hat on too tight.

The Catholic Diocese of Columbus’ Bishop Frederick Campbell told the Shamrock Club, the group that sponsors the annual parade in the city, that all St. Patrick’s celebrations of any kind should be removed from Holy Week this year, according to the AP.

Yeah, right. Everyone in Columbus who even knows someone who claims to have Irish ancestry will drink a green beer in celebration, and they’ll probably even get a refill. What if one Catholic forgets and accidentally wears green during Holy Week? Better hang on to that four-leaf clover just in case you find yourself in purgatory instead of at the end of a rainbow.

The Columbus Shamrock Club will host its parade March 17 anyway. Good for them, and for any of us who finds the Church meddling in civic affairs unsettling and medieval. Oops, didn’t mean to bring up that dark (ages) word, bishop.

Kudos are in order for bishops in New York and Boston who are taking the laissez-faire approach to the matter. The irony comes in when one considers Ireland’s bishops, who were much less adamant than those in the U.S.

Mike Cronin, who helped write “The Wearing of the Green: History of St. Patrick’s Day,” told the AP that trying to prevent the Irish from celebrating St. Patrick’s Day would be akin to American bishops “arguing to move Super Bowl Sunday.”

Well said, Mike. I guess St. Manning’s Day is still safe from the Catholic Church. This year, at least.

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